Nature

Nature is a fabulous source of inspiration with a rich color
palette man can but hope to imitate.  I was recently at the
coast of North Carolina with an oceanfront room.  I
watched and studied the ocean a great deal.  There is a
sense of timelessness about the ocean.  Never fails to
comfort my mind and spirit.  One day it was sunny with a
wide array of blues and shimmering golds and silvers
splashed on the waves. The next day was cloudy, even
foggy at times.  One would think that would not have
been an exceptional day, but it was more so than the
previous one.  I have never seen that many shades of
gray.  There was one time, that only lasted, perhaps, 15
minutes--but what a 15 minutes.  The ocean appeared
more like a drawing done in charcoals than a real life ocean.
I took pictures, but I don't think they could even capture the
essence.  I would watch it change every 10 minutes or so;
it was difficult to leave the ocean to go for lunch. 

I have been so many beautiful places, so I have decided to
devote an entire blog just to my travels and communion with
nature.  Nature is definitely a cornerstone of my creative
process.  The most intense experiences with nature occurred
in the Mohave Desert, by most people's standards, a most bleak
place.  The desert taught me about strength of spirit, about
how we need no one but ourselves.  Only a whisper of a light
sprinkle of rain and the desert would burst forth in bloom. It
was amazing to see, but even more amazing was the visual
lesson that taught me that all we need to grow and flourish
is within us.  We do not need money, things, homes, or
relationships.  Everything we need is given to us at birth.
Learning that so simple but difficult lesson took me to my
mid-forties.  It required leaving everything I knew and held
dear to my heart and somehow ending up in one of the most
desolate dessert the US knows.  It was there, along with the
desert, and a friendship with a very wise Navajo medicine
woman, that I flourished, bloomed, and grew.

Even now, when great difficulties seem insurmountable,
the lessons of the dessert come back to me, and I am
assured that everything will be OK, that whatever is
happening in my life is for a reason, a positive reason,
no matter how unlikely a positive outcome seems
possible,  The cactus have no worries in regard to rain;
they are assured it will come, and when it does, leaves
and flowers appear in the cactus and express their
joy and appreciation.  Listening to the cactus lessons
should be mandatory.  Those lessons leave one forever
changed.


Kate Thorn